Connections, connections, connections

Yesterday we looked at four different models of addition.

Part-part-whole model

Join model

Comparison model

Number line model

Today we looked for connections

1, If you have a model...

.....you can write an equation

6+3=9

.....and you can connect the picture and equation to a story.

"There are 9 students in class. Six boys and three girls."

2. Knowing the addition helps you with subtraction.

"If there are nine students in class, and six of them are boys, how many girls are there?"

You can hide part of the model and

you can write the equation like this

6+ a= 9

(a stands for the unknown)

3. Knowing basic facts helps you to add really large numbers.

If you know 6+3

Then you can also do 6 tens plus 3 tens is 9 tens

or 6000+3000=9000

Do be able to do large numbers computation and equations with missing addends, we have to make sure that the foundation is very strong. Understanding what operations really mean and having automaticity of recalling basic facts ensures that even when a student encounters a harder problem they can use their foundation to solve it. If they use just rote memorization, they may forget, get stuck or take a wrong path when faced with harder problems.